BESLER, Basil (1561-1629)[Purslane] Portulaca Sativa; [Garden savory (summer savory)] Satureia Domestica; [Winter savory] Thymbra legitima Eichstatt, 1640. Hand-coloured engraving. In excellent condition with the exception of some paper loss on the left margin and in the bottom left corner. Basil Besler published "Hortus Eystettensis", the earliest large folio botanical, at Eichstatt near Nuremburg, in 1613. He worked on the drawings for the 374 copper engravings over a period of sixteen years using the plants in the garden of Bishop Johann Conrad von Gemmingen, his patron. Depicted in this florilegium were flowers, herbs, vegetables and newly discovered plants such as tobacco and peppers. Besler was, in modern terms, a botanist and horticulturalist, and he was familiar with real and alleged medicinal properties of various plants. Besler had the good fortune to live at a time when exotic plants were being shipped to Europe from all over the world. The garden that he organized and illustrated for his patron was both ornamental and experimental, and the large book he had engraved after his drawings was unique. The prints, made by a team of master engravers, are strong and exquisitely done.

LITHGOW, William.The Totall Discourse, of the rare Adventures, and painefull Peregrinations of long nineteene yeares Travailes from Scotland, to the most famous Kingdomes in Europe, Asia, and Affrica. Persited by three deare bought Voyages, in surveying of forty eight Kingdomes ancient and modern; twenty one Rei-publicks, ten absolute Principalities, with two hundred Islands. The particular Names whereof, are described in each Argument of the ten Divisions or Parts of this History; and it also divided into three Bookes: being newly corrected, and augmented in many severall places, with the addition of a Table thereunto annexed of all the chiefe heads. Wherein is contayned an exact Relation of the Lawes, Religions, Policies and Governments of all their Princ Okes London 1640 - Second edition. Small 4to. Woodcut frontispiece portrait of Lithgow in Ottoman dress (repeated at page 124) and other woodcuts in text,contemporary blind-stamped calf, raised bands, paper label, small paper restoration to blank outer margin of frontispiece (approx 1 x 1cm) with soft creasing to same, an excellent copy. This book is probably the earliest authority for coffee-drinking in Europe, Turkish Baths, a pigeon post between Aleppo and Baghdad, Turkish tobacco-pipes, artificial incubation, and the importation of currants from Zante to England. Lithgow (1582-1645?), tailor, later traveller, was born in Lanark. This classic account first appeared in 1614 and went through numerous additions being constantly added to as Lithgow made more travels. He visited Italy, the Ionian Islands, Athens, Crete and the Aegean Archipelago in 1609 and stayed for a time on Chios, where he met two French merchants whom he joined to visit Greek monuments and antiquities. Lithgow travelled some 36,000 miles as described in this work. He was imprisoned and tortured in Spain, released at the intervention of James I, and again imprisoned in London for assaulting the Spanish Ambassador. Not in Atabey; Blackmer 1021; STC 15714; Rohricht 934; Tobler p.93; Koç, Constantinople I 49.

BLAEU, Willem Janszoon.Insulæ Americanæ in Oceano Septentrionali, cum Terris Adiacentibus. 1640 - Amsterdam, 1640, French text edition. Original colour with gold highlights. 380 x 520mm. One of the most famous antiquarian maps of the West Indies, also showing the mainland from Chesapeake Bay south to the mouth of the Orinoco. There are three decorative cartouches in full colour, for the title, dedication and scales. KOEMAN: Bl 17.

BLAEU WILLELMPersia sive sophorum regnum 1640 c. Copper engraving, original colour, mm 380x505. Very good condition, just a very light paper discoloration. W. Blaeu, born in Alkmaar in 1571, studied astronomy by Tycho Brahe and founded a business in 1599 as a globe and instrument maker. He immediately expanded the business publishing maps and in 1630 the first atlas "Atlantis appendix" and five years later the "Atlas novus". After his death in 1638, his son Joan reached publication of the major work of the family, the "Atlas maior" in 11 volumes. in 1672 a great fire destroyed the Blaeu's printing house.

Galileo, GalileiLa Operazione Del Compasso Geometrico et Militare Padua Frambotto 1640. Third Edition. Paper-Covered Boards. Very Good. With illustrations. Large folding plate missing. Galileo's first signed text, the Operations of the Compass, has been presented as an educational text to be used for the instruction of Prince Cosimo de' Medici. What it really described, however, was the operation of a highly evolved, precise instrument, designed to find answers, by applying mathematical laws, to the new questions posed by technological progress in the military field and the practical disciplines in general. With this instrument, measurements and calculations were greatly facilitated. It simplified technical problems so greatly, in fact, that Galileo had to hire a craftsman to build enough compasses to satisfy the requests of his pupils, many of them young Venetian noblemen. Housed in custom-made slipcase.